Jeffrey Levine is the author of two books of poetry, Rumor of Cortez (Red Hen Press, 2005) and Mortal, Everlasting, winner of the Transcontinental Poetry Prize from Pavement Saw Press (2002). Nine times nominated for a Pushcart, he has won the Larry Levis Poetry Prize from The Missouri Review, the James Hearst Poetry Award, the Mississippi Review Prize, and the Kestrel Prize, among others. In 1999 he founded Tupelo Press, an independent literary press with offices in Dorset, Vermont and Charlottesville, Virginia.

About Rumor of Cortez:

"I’m struck by the way Levine moves so easily between realms of observation and his ability to juxtapose different kinds of diction. These poems are playful in a mature and optimistic way—none of the lugubrious irony that weighs down much of contemporary poetry. In the 'stopless' world of Rumor of Cortez 'the problem of recollection' is approached the way sand sweeps over the Sahara or ants over their hill, relentlessly, energetically, dispassionately. The sheer imaginative force of Levine’s poems will leave the reader happily breathless surveying 'the edge of everywhere.'"
—Michael Collier

"Jeffrey Levine's beautiful new book, Rumor of Cortez is filled with the joys of narrative and linguistic invention. Readers will find here imaginatively renewed stories of Adam and Eve, Orpheus and Eurydice, and of our own lives. Levine shifts effortlessly among forms and voices to create a magical lyric that is visionary and funny, compassionate and wise."
—Carolyn Forché

"In Rumor of Cortez, Jeffrey Levine bestows on us poems rich in objects and odd adventures—surrealistic narratives that are alternately alert to the given world and eager and capable of inventing their own. Above all, they are 'charming' in the deep sense, casting their spell over us, dazzling us with antic gestures securely tethered to the heart."
—Gregory Orr